Birthdate: May 20, 1992
Birthplace: Cork, Ireland
Jack Gleeson is an Irish actor best known for his fierce portrayal of the vengeful Joffrey Baratheon on Game of Thrones (2011-2014). Before this breakthrough performance, Gleeson had an active career as a young actor on screen, starting with an uncredited role in the Rob Bowman-directed Reign of Fire (2002), co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale.
Gleeson’s first screen role when he reached his teens came in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005), starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman, and grossing over $373 million for Warner Bros. Gleeson had a distinctive supporting role in the Paddy Breathnach-directed horror movie, Shrooms (2007), with Lindsey Haun and Jack Huston, and grossing nearly $5 million for the Danish-British-Irish co-production.
Jack Gleeson had a significant supporting role in director/co-writer Vic Sarin’s Irish-Canadian movie, A Shine of Rainbows (2009), with Connie Nielsen, Aidan Quinn, and John Bell, and winning the audience award at the Heartland Film Festival. Gleeson had his first starring role in a feature in Irish filmmaker Alicia Duffy’s acclaimed debut, All Good Children (2010), with Imogen Jones, and which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Gleeson co-starred with Cameron Macaulay, Mark Doherty, and Breffni Holahan in writer-director Craig Austin Reynolds’ Irish rom-com, Rebecca’s Boyfriend (2021). Gleeson had one of his biggest roles to date opposite Liam Neeson and Kerry Condon in the Irish revenge drama, In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2024), directed by Robert Lorenz and premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
Jack Gleeson was born in Cork, Ireland, and raised in Dublin by his parents. Gleeson has three sisters, Rachel, Hannah, and Emma. Gleeson attended the Dublin private school, Gonzaga College, from 2004 to 2010, while performing in youth theater, and then attended Trinity College in Dublin, where he studied theology and philosophy and was elected the highest student rank of Scholar in 2012. Gleeson has been married to actor-director Roisin O’Mahony since 2022.
Nominee, Best Younger Actor in TV Series, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Awards (2014); Two-time Nominee, Best Ensemble-Drama Series, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2012, 2014).
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Puppet Master: Jack Gleeson is co-founder and artistic director of Collapsing Horse Theatre Company, based in Dublin, where he has been a puppeteer in the company’s puppet theater productions.
No F-Bombs: Gleeson has noted that he doesn’t swear except if the dialogue calls for it, and only delivers the words on the filmed take.